In cold blood – anatomy of a 4-H project?

Do people think food comes from a sanitized factory where chemicals swirl together and hamburgers roll out the door? I mean, even tofu involves the disfigurement of thousands of soybeans.

It seems like there’s more and more distance between the producers of food and the consumers. Those consumers don’t really get it that there’s a lot of dirt involved in the process. And in the animal production department, there’s also a lot of poop.

The website Drovers CattleNetwork has a good story on the growing separation of producers and consumers. That story is driven by a CNN segment that unintentionally stirred a debate about whether raising animals and then putting them in the auction ring to head to slaughtr desensitizes kids in 4-H.

I've felt kind of attached to some of the cattle I've raised, but looking back, I can't really say why.

The story generated at least 138 reader comments including the one that prompted the debate.

“If children are raised to love all animals and not try to see them as products, they would not be interested in seeing them killed,” it said.

In reference to a comment In the CNN report about seeing a project animal sold at auction as “incredibly fulfilling,” the reader comment says, “You mean knowing the animal that trusted you from birth is off to be mistreated before being slaughtered… It's simply horrific. Shame on you 4-H for what you do to animals and to children.”

Then the 4-H supporters really start.

“Or perhaps 4-H sensitizes future farmers … People are going to eat chickens, but you should know better than to lock them in cages or torture them. People will eat cows, but that doesn't mean they have to be tied up in pens and terrorized all their lives,” one says.

Then back to the sensitive side.

“I am now a senior citizen and to this day, I have many issues because I was expected to understand and accept the killing of the very animals I saw every day and grew to love. I was ridiculed most of those days by a family who did not care to understand a child with a very compassionate and sensitive nature,” a comment reads.

But the 4-Hers aren’t the quitting types.

“4-H has been a program to raise youth...not just livestock. There is far more to the organization than livestock,” one says.

What's your take?

Let me tell you, if you've ever been chased by a bull, kicked by a cow or slobbered on copiously by a calf - all of which has happened to me - being "attached" to a food animal is really different from loving a pet.